‘The Year Between’ Review: Alex Heller Dedicates a Gap Year to Bipolar Disorder in Well-Balanced Indie
Dennis Harvey Film Critic Writer-director-star Alex Heller’s debut feature is a fictive spin on the very crisis she experienced at age 19, when she dropped out of college and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Not the weightiest screen treatment of a serious mental health issue, this drolly self-deprecating portrayal nonetheless achieves a degree of poignancy and depth within a distinctive sensibility you might call Midwestern Sardonic. After a fest run, it’s opening in limited theaters and on demand March 3. Clemence Miller (Heller) screams “trainwreck” from the moment we first see her dragging a garbage bag across campus, haranguing everyone whose path she crosses. She then turns that alienating energy on her terrified dorm roommate (Taylor Marie Blim), who says, “You’re ruining my college experience!” The roomie has, it turns out, already informed Clem’s mother that she has spiraled into “hoarding, stealing, paranoia and shrieking.” Ergo Sherri (J. Smith-Cameron) bursts through the door, dragging her eldest child back to suburban Illinois not a moment too soon.